


You Made Us This Way

by Spitebite (QuintessentialVandal)



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Grand Theft Auto Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Body Horror, Canon-Typical Violence, Fake AH Crew, Found Family, Gen, Trans Jack Pattillo, adding tags as I go, eventually, for the first chapter at least haha, gavin accidentally kills a dog but he feels v bad, gavin cuts his hand but its for filmography, look man im gay for superpowers, rated m for gore, rimmy fuckin tim baybee, rimmy tim, unusual superpowers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2018-12-05 19:07:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11584299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuintessentialVandal/pseuds/Spitebite
Summary: When humans are in danger, they have the potential to develop powers- powers that could save their lives, or the lives of those around them. Certain assholes misuse these powers, become assassins and bank robbers, form a gang, a family, life-long bonds. Assholes. [Basically superpowered FAHC]





	1. Ryan- Origins

    Ryan was the youngest to discover his power. He was seven, clutching the clumps of dirt in his hand and gritting his teeth as he looked over where his bike had slid down the embankment, handlebars mangled and rising out of the brush like the neck of some old, tired creature straining to breathe.

   Squeezing the dirt in his hand, he pushed against the wall of the embankment, straining to stand up and stumble over to his bike- in his panicked state, the boy’s priority was making sure his bike was okay. He took a step towards it, put a tiny bit of weight on his leg, and crumbled to the floor again with a whine.

   He didn’t want to look at his ankle, knowing from the combination of the awful ache coming from it and the sickening crunch that he had heard when he had landed on it that it was probably broken, and badly. He felt like bawling, instead just crying silently. He didn’t know what was in these woods.

   After about ten minutes of crying, he pushed his leg out in front of him, sitting back on his other leg. He started crying harder, starting to worry that no one would find him. He was seven, he was hurt and he was alone.

Pulling up his pants leg, he could see that the sock was drenched with blood. He winced, then reached down to peel the sock off and get a sense of the severity of the wound. The fabric clung to the flesh, bringing tears welling to his eyes as he pulled it down. Okay, not too bad, mostly just blood and a bit of gristle, and,

   Oh.

   A rather large bit of bone was protruding from the skin of his ankle, blood starting to crust around the edges of where it had emerged. He whimpered when he saw it, his first impulse being to reach out and touch it.

   Shakily, he extended a finger and brushed it against the reddish white material, and instantly the pain stopped, replaced by an odd buzzing feeling.

   With a jolt, he pulled his hand away and held it to his chest, heart racing. What?

   He reached out again, pressing a finger to the bone and feeling all the pain dissipate again. He held his hand there longer this time, feeling the buzzing spread up his leg to about his hip.

   Curious to see if he could still feel pain, he pushed against his bone and… it bent, springing back when he yanked his hand back away from the injury. It hadn’t hurt, though, so he repeated the motion. The bone felt less like bone and more like clay under his hands, pliant and easy to work with, and hey, maybe he could work with this.

   His tears had long dried at this point, now that he was distracted by his new discovery. He pushed the bone from one hand to the other, moving it like a snake and watching with morbid fascination as it hovered, just between his hands, not quite touching either, and just vibrated.

   He narrowed his eyes, and it moved to the left, then to the right. Lowering his hands, he watched as the bone swayed back and forth slowly to some unheard beat. Before his eyes, it became long and sharp, then short and round.

   A thought occurred to him- Could he fix his leg?

   He scrunched up his face, willing his bone to go back to its unbroken state. Slowly, it sunk back into the gash and he felt it fill in some part of him that had been sunken in or hollowed out.

   The feeling of Wrongness faded instantly, and he was instead faced with just a scraped up leg and a few bruises. No broken leg.

   Ryan stood up slowly, testing out his leg with a certain wariness that was to be expected of someone who had been through what he had. It held his weight without protest, and he was able to walk to his bike, scurry up the embankment, and walk home.

   He didn’t tell his mother, naturally. He returned home, bloody and limping by habit and full of ideas. Something about what happened in those woods was just Wrong, and he didn’t tell anyone for years.

**…**

   When Ryan was 14, he got a cow skull, a fox skull and a bag of assorted bones for his birthday. He had been asking for bones for years, but his mother found the request too morbid to fulfill until this age.

   As soon as he ran a finger over the horn of the cow, he felt that familiar buzzing and just Knew that it wasn’t over, that what happened in those woods was real. 

   He had scurried up to his room where he sat in the middle of the floor, both hands on the cow skull, deep in thought. Under his hands, the bone warped and twisted, shifting and morphing into abstract shapes as he thought.

   “Alright.” he mumbled, biting his lip. “Let’s make you… First off, I need a helmet.” He kept his voice low, speaking in a hushed whisper.

   Instantly, the bottom of the skull hollowed out and shifted to the sides, allowing space for a head. He lifted it, then slowly brought it down over his head like a helmet. He could see out of the mouth perfectly, but it was a bit heavy. Well, he wasn’t planning on wearing it until he was older, anyway. He slipped off the helmet, placing it down in front of him.

   Next, the assorted bones. He picked them up one by one, gingerly holding them in his hand and examining them for any flaws. He pinched the tip of one, flattening it into a blade. He ran his finger over it, pinching along the edges, squeezing, pinching, and then it was a delightful little throwing knife. Not the best one, but he had time to get better at making them. There didn’t seem to be a limit on how many times he could reshape an object.

   The next bone he picked up, he shaped into a long needle shape. He watched with eyes half lidded as it shortened and elongated in his hand, before placing it back down into the pile.

He shaped the rest into odds and ends, large knives and throwing knives, sawtooth knives and even one machete.

**…**

   He sunk the needle into the lock, willing it to bend and twist up through the different pegs. Once he heard that little click, he grinned and pulled retracted the needle, pushing open the door slowly. It didn’t creak.

   He moved silently through the house, like a ghost. They’d started calling him the “Mad Mercenary” lately, both in the papers and online, and he wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Sure, he was a bit eccentric, but he wasn’t MAD.

   He crept into the room where his target slept, slowly and efficiently slitting their throat before beginning the fun part. He made a small incision on the forehead, where the skin was thin, and placed his finger neatly against the bone.

   He felt the buzzing extend throughout their entire body, and slowly he began the work of breaking most of the bones in their body.

   It was his calling card, what let people know he was responsible for this kill. Nobody else had the precision he had, the delicacy to go through and leave his mark this way. It let the people who hired him know they got what they paid for.

   He wished he could better understand his power; where it came from and whether there were others like him. He was fine working alone, but he couldn’t help wondering about the possibility of a future where he wasn’t so alone.


	2. Jack- origins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Jack got powers, and how Geoff hatched a plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof sorry this took so long lol  
> anyway again sorry for body horror

   “So, can you heal it?”

   Jack sighed, rubbing his temples. 17 year old Geoff had shown up at his dorm and was holding out his bleeding hand, a hand he had so willingly sliced open with the scissors sitting on the wooden table.

   “Geoff, I-I, I think you’re putting too much faith in me. I told you I had fucking superpowers and you _believed_ me? I could be fucking crazy! Fuck, I probably am!”  Jack buried his face in his hands, while Geoff looked on with a blank expression.

   “Jack. Jack?” Geoff spoke softly, lowering himself to be even with Jack’s slumped over body.

   “Jack, you’re my best friend, you’ve been my best friend for 7 years. I know you, and I know when you’re serious about something.”

   “You called me at 2 AM to tell me you think you have superpowers, that you healed yourself, and you sounded scared out of your mind. So, tell me- do you think you can heal my hand?” his voice was patient, but had an air of tiredness to it- considering it was 4 AM, it made sense.

   Jack straightened up, eyes worried, and warily reached over to take Geoff’s hand in his own, slightly larger one. As soon as he touched the man’s skin, he felt that soft buzz around the edges of his consciousness, the same way he had when he had healed himself earlier.

   Lightly bringing his other hand over to the wound, he touched a finger to the sliced skin. Instantly, the skin stretched up, pooling around his fingertips. Geoff winced, but watched in fascination as Jack dragged the skin over the cut with his fingertip, connecting it to the other side and watching it stitch back together with the remaining skin easily.

   Once he was finished, he gingerly released Geoff’s healed hand. He looked tired, eyes half lidded and dark while Geoff examined his hand.

   “So you… you see why I was a little out of it today.” Jack said, laying back against the couch.

   Geoff only nodded, flexing his hand and watching the light shine on his newly healed skin.

   “There’s not even a scar. It’s perfect healing. It’s literally… perfect.” Geoff paused, then piped up again in a tired voice. “Can you heal things that, like… Aren’t broken?”

   Jack looked at him with an odd expression. “What the fuck does that even mean Geoff?”

   Geoff was standing, pacing back and forth. “like, can you, I dunno… Change how the body is, like, fundamentally. Grow a third eye. Grow a sixth finger. Grow wings.” He paused his pacing to look at Jack, thinking deeply.

   “I mean, healing is just body manipulation, right? So theoretically, it could work, right?”

   Jack blinked slowly, holding his hand up to the light and observing the way it caught in the folds of his fingers. “I don’t know if it works like that? When I touch skin, it lets me… smudge the edges of it. Like clay, or paint. I don’t know if it works on anything other than skin.” To prove his point, he lightly touched his finger to his palm, concentrated, and then-

   The skin peeled back from the point where his finger touched, and he yelled in surprise. Geoff startled so badly he almost fell off his seat, reaching for Jack’s flailing form. Jack’s hand had a horrible dent in it where it looked like someone had peeled the skin back, but the skin was still peeling back, still rippling like water, being pushed away from his finger, but jack didn’t seem to feel any pain.

   He looked at Geoff, confusion in his eyes, and slowly the skin settled back onto his hand.

   Geoff grabbed his hand, pulling it towards him to examine it.

   “What the fuck, Jack.”

    Jack looked just as confused, again looking down at his unscarred skin. He didn’t know how this was happening, but he wondered if there were others like him.

…

   The red-headed woman was the best pilot in Los Santos; she could fly anything, drive anything, if it had a motor, it was effectively hers. She worked for hire, for anyone who could afford her-

   And Geoff Ramsey.

   She was driving Geoff home from the bar in a minivan, 7 years after they first talked about her “powers”.

   “Jack, Jack, do you think there’s more people like you?” he questioned, turning to her in the front seat.

   She gave him a look. “What do you mean, Geoff? More getaway drivers?”

   He shook his head. “Jack. You remember that night. You have t’be asking yourself the same question. Are there more people like you? More people who can do things like that?”

   Her eyes remained on the road, focused and silent.

   “What if we could find them, Jack. It’s just- it’s just a shitty drunk Geoff idea but, what if we made a team? You can’t be the only one.”

   Jack stopped at a red light, finally turning to look at Geoff.

   “Find them first. Then we’ll talk.”


	3. Geoff, Michael and Gavin- intros

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> do you think jack could circumcise someone if she was mad enough? hey @ future me, use that later in a fight scene

      Geoff was 25 when it happened. He was being driven home again by Jack, a regular occurrence between the two friends, when there was a shuddering crash and the sound of grinding metal- Geoff couldn’t place what it came from, what direction the sounds had echoed from or even how close they were, but he knew the road was below him and then suddenly not, as if some great giant had picked up the car with him and jack inside and lifted it up high.

   He saw the road roll to be above his head, then heard that grinding sound again as the vehicle surfed across the asphalt. His head throbbed from how it had been whipped around in the crash, and the way he was dangling upside down from his seat didn’t help. He swiped a hand across his forehead, only for it to come back bloody. Shit.

   He turned to Jack, wanting to check her condition, only to find her hanging unmoving from her seatbelt. Double shit.

   He swore loudly and reached for his phone in his pocket, but found it empty. Thinking quickly, he reached over to check Jack’s closest pocket as well. In a stroke of luck, he found a phone that wasn't damaged and somehow hadn't fallen out.

   Geoff quickly dialed the police, then paused. Jack was wanted as the getaway driver in several heists, the police might not be a great idea. He looked out the smashed front window to look for the car they had been hit by- if they were unlucky, they might be dialing the police already.

   He needed to get Jack out of here.

   He reached down and unbuckled his seatbelt, bracing himself against the dashboard with his free hand. He came down hard, crumpling onto the ceiling of the car and scratching himself up on the broken glass. There he stayed for about thirty seconds, unmoving and breathing hard, before he pushed himself up and started trying to unbuckle Jack. The seatbelt held firm, however, stuck in the locked position and refusing to budge. Geoff almost screamed in frustration.

   He was growing increasingly aware of an odd feeling growing at the edges of his consciousness. Like the way you can be distinctly aware someone is standing close behind you, even without seeing them- just the knowledge that something was there.

   Focusing on this feeling, he tried to bring it more into focus.

…

   Dragging him by the hand, 19 year old Gavin led Michael into his room.

   “Gavin, you’re sure you want me to… god, that’ that’s fucking weird. If you’re telling the truth, I mean. Cool, but fucking weird as shit.” Michael mumbled, making sure to keep his voice low.

   “I told you boi, I really can’t reach the ones on my back.” He chirped, quickly pulling his “awesome button” shirt up over his head. Michael laughed nervously. He was honestly terrified, not because his friend might be lying, but because depending on the outcome of this, he might have just found someone like him.

…

   Geoff really did scream this time as a coiled tentacle of smoke lifted itself up from the cars engine and poked in through the shattered window, pressing itself against Jacks seatbelt. In a sudden pulse of embers, the tip of it lit up orange and the material of the belt was burned through instantly. Jack fell quickly, though Geoff was able to catch her before she hit the bottom of the car. The smoke dispersed the moment he stopped focusing on it, leaving him with Jack in his arms, wondering what the fuck had just happened.

...

   “They’re… crystals.” Michael murmured, scanning his eyes over the golden… things, growing out of Gavin's back.

   Gavin nodded, looking back over his shoulder at the other 19 year old. “Pyrite, fools gold. I can’t reach the ones on my back.” He spoke calmly, like this was an everyday problem faced by normal people.

   Michael balled his fists. “if this is your idea of a joke, it’s not fucking funny, asshole.” he said it a bit louder than he intended, and hoped Gavin missed the wisps of smoke that escaped his lips.

   Gavin gave him a confused, almost hurt look. “i… don’t know why you're so suspicious of me, Michael. I-I know it sounds like a lie! But, if I prove it, will you help me get these off of my back, Michael?”

   Michael glared, but nodded silently. It was when Gavin reached for the knife he had lying on his bedside table that he panicked.

   “What the fuck are you doing? No, no asshole, you aren’t gonna fucking hurt yourself just to prove you have fucking superpowers. Jokes over, you tricked Michael fucking Jones, ha ha fucking ha. Good job gluing rocks to your back. Really sold it. What’s next, are you gonna-“

   Gavin sliced across his hand, deep enough to start badly bleeding immediately.

   Michael yelped, a burst of smoke springing from his lips and startling Gavin.

   “Wait, did you just-“

   “I- not important right now asshole! Your fucking hand-“ Michael spoke quietly, but with urgency.

   As Michael watched, the edges of the injury began to crystalize, small cubes of golden mineral forming along the sides. Blood stopped running down the boys palm as bigger chunks of crystal formed in the middle of the cut, eventually forming one large crystal formation. Gavin flexed his fingers, then peeled the crystal off from his skin. Underneath was a small scar, barely noticeable. He handed the crystals to Michael with a smug look.

   “So, still think this is a prank?”

….

   Geoff hobbled out from the scene of the car crash, carrying jack over his shoulder. He knew he was relatively close to his house, having sobered up quickly. He just knew he needed to get home. He was lucky enough to recognize where he was, and knew how to get home from here, but it was still quite a walk. After about 15 minutes, jack woke up and Geoff was grateful for the fact that he wouldn’t have to carry his best friend anymore.

   “That was… bad” Jack mumbled, keeping her head low. She wiped some of the blood off of her face with her Hawaiian shirt sleeve.

   Geoff nodded, looking behind them. He had a bad feeling. This was los Santos after all.

   “Something wrong?” Jack asked, now also nervous. She kept a hand on the pistol that had managed to stay in her pocket in the crash.

   “Nothing. Just a feeling. Turn left here.” Geoff signaled, both of them ducking around a corner. They watched silently as a man walked past moments later, knife drawn.

   Jack cocked her gun and the man turned quickly, fear in his eyes, knife raising-

   A man in a cowboy hat jumped down from the roof of the building, clad in bright purple and orange, screaming “RIMMY FUCKIN TIM BAYBEE” and landed a solid drop kick on the potential mugger before Jack could even aim.

…

   “So, did you breathe smoke, or am I seeing things?” Gavin asked once both of them were seated comfortably on the bed.

   Michael looked away, expression vacant.

   “It's complicated”

   Gavin shrugged. “Boi, we have time. I’m not gonna force you to talk about it, but you can. I mean, I grow fucking crystals. I get how it is.”

   Michael gave him a look that Gavin couldn’t decipher, then started talking.

   “So. You know how I always talk… like this. Quiet.” He mumbled, running a hand through his curls. “And I tell everyone it’s because my throats fucked up.” He looked Gavin in the eye finally, but he didn’t look happy.

   “When I was a kid, 12 I think? I got caught outside in a snowstorm. And I and yelled and nobody heard me. I came this” he almost pressed his fingers together “close to freezing to death.”

   Michael sighed _._ “Do you know why I didn’t?”

   Gavin shook his head, eyes wide.

   “At some point, my yelling started making fire. It still does. If I yell, I breathe fire. If I fucking talk loud I fire. Sometimes if I sneeze I fucking breathe goddamn fire. That’s why I’m always so quiet, Gavin, do you get it now? Yeah, you grow crystals. But you don’t, you won’t…. You aren’t this.”

   Gavin looked down. His fists clenched suddenly, and he looked up at Michael with a tired expression.

   “I killed my neighbor’s dog.”

   Michael jumped, eyes widening. “Wh-what?”

   Gavin gave a small sad smile. “It was an accident! But it was honestly the worst day of my life.”

…

   It was a new neighbor who brought the dog into his life. He was on his way back from class and saw it, chained up in the front yard. Easy enough to pass, he thought. But as he started getting closer, it started shaking, snarling and pulling at the chain. He started walking faster, needing to get past it as fast as possible.

   With one last lunge, it broke through the chain and chased him down the street, around the corner, and was on top of him instantly. He yelled out for help as it's jaws clamped down on his arm, and then-

   It stopped moving. Gavin noticed the usual crystals that grow from his wounds clustering around the dogs jaws, and the dog released him, backing up and shaking its head.  He saw crystals on the dogs tongue, and growing around its muzzle, spreading up to its eyes. He stood up, grabbed it and ran, not wanting to see the rest but desperate to hide what he'd done.

   He buried the dog by a river. It was mostly crystal at that point, the sharp edges slowly piercing out through the animals skin. He saw that every time he closed his eyes for months.

   He saw it again now, telling Michael about it.

…

   “Rimmy fuckin Tim!” the stranger hollered, pumping his fist in the air. He was standing with one foot on top of the man, sunglasses slightly askew. With one last yell of victory, he turned to the two standing, watching him.

   Jack's gun was still pointed right at his chest, but he didn’t seem alarmed at all. Instead, he turned and pointed his finger at Geoff’s chest.

   “You, you’re… you’re like me! That smoke thing, you have powers too!”


	4. Naming procedures and Jeremy- intro

   Geoff and Jack exchanged a look, and jack hesitantly lowered her gun, giving the man (“Rimmy Tim?”) a wary side-eye.

   Jack spoke first, though it was directed at Geoff. In a quiet voice, she asked, “Smoke thing?”

   Geoff grinned nervously and scratched the back of his neck, scuffing his shoe on the asphalt.

   “So, uh, you’re… not the only one with powers, it looks like!” he laughed, scratching at his stubble. “I was only able to get you out of that car with the help of some…” he trailed off, looking at his hand, “smoke thing?”

   The man in the cowboy hat tapped his foot excitedly, joining into the conversation without warning.

   “It was so cool! Especially from the outside. See, I recognized your vehicle from a heist a bit back” he gestured at Jack, “Of which I’m guessing you were the getaway driver? So I was gonna follow you and see what happened, and then you got in that nasty crash, so I… kinda just waited?”

   The man looked guiltily at his shoes. “I was sorta waiting to see if you were dead or not. You know? I didn’t want to investigate, but like, I wanted to see if you’d come out… And suddenly, all the smoke started swirling up, and it went through the window and you came out!” he looked at the two of them over his sunglasses.

   “So, unless I’m mistaken, one of you has powers. Like me. And I’ve been looking for people like me for a while now.” He looked the two of them over, eyes  pausing on the blood caked in Geoff’s hair and over Jack’s face.

   “We can talk about that later. First we need to get you two patched up. Come with me, would’ja?” he gestured to follow, and started leading them.

   They hesitated, however, giving each other wary stares. Jack started with a hesitant question, “You got powers?” which Geoff interrupted with a “Can we trust him? What if he’s lying?”

   “What if he’s not?” asked Jack, hesitant. She looked over to see the man walking away, looking over his shoulder.

   Geoff sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose before laughing wheezily. “I mean, might as well. You can always circumcise the bastard if anything goes wrong!”

   Jack laughed at that, uncocking her gun (for safety) before slipping her pistol back into her pocket. Slinging an arm around Geoff, she started walking after the man in the cowboy hat.

…

   Gavin missed Dan. He had left him behind in England in his younger teen years, leaving his one best friend and the only other person who knew about his power. Dan was there when it first developed, actually- he saw firsthand how much damage Gavin could recover from.

   They were the slow-mo guys, recording cool shit in slow-mo. And today? Today they were recording fireworks.

   They’d set up the cameras, Dan was in his lab-coat behind the fancy slow-mo camera, waiting for Gavin to run up and light the fuse. There should be no problem.

   Gavin gave him a double thumbs up, pulling his goggles down over his face before sprinting out, lighter in hand.

   He touched the lighter to the fuse and turned around, starting to run back, and then-

   There was a flash of light, a loud explosion, and Gavin was on the ground, writhing. He rolled, arms covering his face, legs kicking out in a feeble attempt to push himself away from the explosion.

   The explosion, though it only lasted a second, hit Gavin squarely in the back. He was rolling, trying to put out the burning pain on his back as Dan ran to him. He scooped Gavin up and ran inside, carrying the boy carefully to the couch as he stammered incoherently, mumbling about fire and burning.

    Laying him down on the couch, Dan flipped Gavin onto his stomach to get a better look at his back.

   He was greeted with skin quickly reddening, already starting to swell and blister. He winced at the sight, running off to grab an ice pack.

   While he was gone, Gavin stopped his mumbling and instead focused on the injury. It hurt, terribly, but there was an odd buzzing to it, around the edges of his consciousness.

   When Dan came back, Gavin was sitting up with crystal jutting from his back at odd angles. He looked exhausted, but not in pain.

‘  
…

   The man still hadn’t removed his cowboy hat as knelt in front of the two, swiping a cotton ball across Jack’s forehead, cleaning away the blood from a small gash before applying a bright purple bandage. Geoff sat next to her, similarly bandaged up and on the brink of a meltdown. This man was acting so… normal, as if he hadn’t dragged them in off the streets talking about superpowers.

   Jack was happy to allow herself to be bandaged, not quite having the heart to tell this kind-hearted stranger that she could heal any of the small wounds he was devoting his time to.

   Geoff finally snapped, his hands on his knees. “So what can you do?” he asked, impatient, “What’s your power. What makes us the same as you.”

   The man paused, hand still extended with a cotton ball pinched between his fingers. His eyes shone behind his sunglasses, an orange glint to the dark brown. Quickly, he turned around and took a step away from the two.

   “It’s…” he sighed, looking over his shoulder, “It’s not a good power. It’s kinda shitty.”

   Jack stood, wobbling slightly before walking up to the man. She placed a hand on his shoulder gently- not trying to turn him around, just comforting him.

   “What’s your name, hun?” She asked in a soft tone, squeezing his shoulder a bit.

   He laughed very quietly, turning to look at her and finally speaking again with a catlike grin.

   “It’s Jeremy, and I can show you my power if I’m outside. Follow me?” he gestured to Geoff as well, hoping the man would also follow him.

…

   “So what, we’re both super-powered freaks, what do we do now? Save damsels? Stop the fucking Joker?” Michael was laying back on Gavin’s bed, head resting comfortably on the other boy’s stomach.

   “Nah boi, hero jobs are boring.” Gavin laughed, jostling Michael slightly and making him huff out an annoyed puff of smoke.

   “What, we’re gonna be supervillains just because it’s more fun? Shut up asshole, you’re fucking nuts. You’ve got those rocks in your fucking brain.” He rolled onto his side, pulling his legs up close to his chest.

   Gavin only laughed though, ruffling the lad’s hair before continuing. “No way Michael, not yet, first we need hero names! Or villain names, technically.” He paused, looking up at the ceiling while resting on his arms.

   Michael snorted, rolling so that he wasn’t resting on Gavin anymore. Taking a pillow, he mashed it into Gavin’s face, laughing. “Flashbang takes down Crystalo in one move! In-currrrr-edible!” he giggled, bringing the pillow down.

   When the pillow was removed, Gavin was a ball of laughter and messy hair, but as he calmed down he got a more contemplative look.

   “Flashbang?”

   Michael shrugged, blushing a bit. “It fits, right?”

   “But you make fire, not light… what about firebug?”

   “I’m not a fucking insect!”

   “Mayhem?”

   “Can’t do it, sounds like a dog’s name…”

   “how about _The Whisperer_ …”

   Michael kicked him.

   The two boys sat in silence for a few minutes, before Michael piped up.

   “Dynamite.”

…

   Jeremy had led the two outside and now stood in the bright sun, short sleeves of his tee-shirt exposing his skin to the harsh light.

   “Okay! Okay. Uh, so this is gonna look pretty weird, fair warning.” He laughed, holding his arms out to his sides.

   The man closed his eyes. He flexed his fingers outwards, and then-

   As they watched, hundreds of tiny scales covering his arms flipped up, catching the sunlight and heat, making his skin appear to be striped with orange and white. He seemed to glow as he gathered energy, eyes opening and glowing from within as well with that deep light. Light glinted off the scales, forming an aura-like effect around him. With a deep exhale, he brought his arms down and stopped the process, the scales flipping back over.

   “Now” he said, gesturing for them to come over, “Try to hit me.”

   Geoff swung at him with no hesitation, a sweeping punch from the right. Jeremy was there, and then he just… wasn’t. Too fast for either of their eyes to even track, the man had ducked down and wrapped his arms around Geoff’s legs, holding him in a bear hug. As quickly as he had ducked down, he stood back up, picking Geoff up by the legs without any effort. Geoff yelled, kicking and squirming, while Jeremy and jack both laughed.

   “So, you absorb sunlight and get… strength and speed?” Jack asked while Jeremy put the yelling Geoff down.

   Jeremy nodded, beaming. Jack walked over and reached out a hand, silently asking for Jeremy’s arm. When Jeremy offered it, Jack ran a finger over where the scales had been and found them still there, just flattened down.

   “Like a butterfly’s wings…” she murmured, running a finger up his arm opposite to how the scales ran and watching them flip up. Jeremy’s face held a nervous look, but he was glad to be getting the attention.

   Geoff watched silently over Jack’s shoulder before speaking up. “You’re like a walking solar panel.”

   Jeremy laughed nervously as Jack continued her examination.

…

   “I think I’m gonna go with ‘Gold’ as my villain name. Keep it simple.” Gavin stated, laying his head back down on the pillow.

   Michael laughed, “My little golden boi!” he snort-whispered, grinning at the pouting expression on Gavin’s face.

   “Michael! Do you not like my name, Michael?” Gavin whined, hurt.

   Michael shoved him playfully, pulling him over and messing up his hair. “Go with something more… you.” He said, rolling his eyes.

   Gavin paused, thinking. He laced his fingers together, staring up at the ceiling. “What about… Fool’s Gold?”

   Michael looked like he was deep in thought for a moment, then nodded. “Fool’s Gold it is, then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> jeremy ball of sunshine confirmed?


	5. Game fuckin stop baybee

   “You want to do _what_?” Michael looked almost offended by the idea, eyebrows furrowed. He had a hand running through his hair, the bouncy curls clinging to his fingertips. The idea wasn’t… bad, necessarily, but…

   “We rob a Gamestop!” Gavin had an excited gleam in his eyes, hands balled into fists in front of him. “Get some cash, some good games, some sweet gubbins, everything!”

   Michael sighed, looking exhausted. “Convince me.” He said softly, giving Gavin a glare with no real heat behind it.

   “We have superpowers, boi! What’s the point if we don’t use them?” he laughed, pumping his fist in the air. “We’ll be supervillains!”

   “We need costumes first, dumbass.” Michael grumbled, looking contemplative. He gave Gavin a side-eye, then spoke again.

   “In theory, I could drive us over to the party store- the one that sells the masks?” he offered, raising an eyebrow.

   “And we rob that one too?”

   “No Gavin! What’s with you?”

   “I just want to get into this, boi. I’m excited! We can be real villains!” Gavin laughed, wrapping an arm around Michael’s shoulder and bonking their heads together.

   Michael gave a begrudging smile, slipping off the bed and out of Gavin’s grip. “The party store awaits!” he called to Gavin, smoke pouring out of his mouth.

…

   “So, you can control smoke?” Jack asked hesitantly, giving Geoff an odd look. Jeremy was sitting on a swivel chair while Jack and Geoff sat on his couch.

   Geoff gave a nod, looking to Jeremy briefly before speaking. “Yeah, I uh… It was pretty weird. I wish I could show you, you could probably help me figure it out.” He placed his hands on his knees and sighed, shaking his head.

   Jeremy spoke up. “There’s fire-pits in the park right by here! We can always use those if you want to use your power.”

   Geoff raised an eyebrow, scratching at his beard. He gave Jack a questioning look, and when she nodded, he stood up. Jeremy also stood and walked to the door, opening it and gesturing for the two to follow.

   The walk to the park was short, as it was only about a block away, but they arrived in the early evening as the sun was just beginning to set.

   The fire pits were clearly used often, but today the coast seemed to be relatively clear. Nobody was really around in the park either, luckily for them, so they could try this in relative privacy.

   Geoff approached the firepit, which was just an indent in the ground full of ash and cinders. He felt that incessant buzzing around the edges of his consciousness again the closer he got to the firepit, despite there not being any actual smoke present.

   Raising a hand and extending his fingers, he focused on the buzzing. The tone of the sound got deeper, heavier in pitch until he saw the ash begin to stir. Jumping back, he tried to dodge away as a funnel of ash flew towards him and caked itself to his exposed forearm, forming long, clawed fingers and a spiked elbow.

   “Holy shit!” yelled Jeremy, dashing up to examine Geoff’s new hand armor. Jack approached more slowly, but when she arrived she cautiously extended a hand to feel the ash and cinder that had formed itself to Geoff’s arm. Geoff cautiously flexed his fingers, forming a fist and extending his claws again. Giving the air an experimental swipe, he gave a good laugh.

   “Now check this shit out!” he laughed, giving a demonic thumbs up.

   Jeremy held up a hand for a high-five, and after receiving one was left with a black handprint on his palm. He laughed anyway, leaning down with a lighter to light the firepit.

   “So you can control both ash and smoke, then?” asked Jack, watching as Jeremy lit the fire.

   Geoff gave a small cough before replying, “Yeah, I guess so? It’s weird though, ash just wants to be… on me. I don’t know if I can make it do other things.” He spoke in his regular easygoing voice, but jack could feel that he was stressed.

   Once the fire had really started going, Jeremy took a few steps back and gestured for Geoff to go ahead. Geoff, with his arm still coated in ash, focused on the smoke that had begun rising into the evening sky and close his eyes.

   With a rush of wind, the smoke condensed into a funnel and swirled into the air, before seeming to hesitate on what to do. Geoff opened his eyes and yelped, startled by the funnel of smoke. As soon as he lost his focus, cinders rose up through the entire funnel and it dispersed.

   Jack looked shocked, watching in confusion as the funnel vanished and Geoff sunk to his knees, breathing hard. She walked over to help him up, only to find the ash on his arm was beginning to flake off.

   “Geoff? Geoff hun, focus, you’re losing your claws.” She stated, calling his attention to the fact. Geoff startled, quickly focusing on the ash again and drawing it back to his body.

   Jeremy laughed as some embers were pulled up onto his arm as well, forming glowing lines along his arm. “That is too cool.”

…

   Michael and Gavin showed up to the party store when the sun had just begun to set. The store was set to be open for another hour, and checking online, the Gamestop would be open for two more, so Michael figured they could make this work if they were fast.

   Gavin quickly began scouring the store’s wares, having picked out a dark blue dress shirt and some black pants to wear before they arrived. Michael wore a dark leather jacket and black pants and was browsing the masks, eventually picking out a [child’s bear mask](https://img1.etsystatic.com/020/0/6426459/il_fullxfull.498633351_7w5v.jpg) that only covered the top half of his face. Gavin thought for a while, then chose a simple [reflective gold mask](https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi2qYm8jKvXAhVLyGMKHQrhApcQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FMask-8-5-Inch-Painted-Black-Elastic%2Fdp%2FB008GVKVFO&psig=AOvVaw09Mj3XZJvbemgSP197LNHX&ust=1510097167433522).

   After choosing their disguises, the duo made their way to the Gamestop. While they walked, Gavin used a pin in his pocket to prick his fingertips and cause small crystals to form like claws. He also pricked over his wrists, forming crystals there as well.

   As they stood outside of the store, they readied themselves. Could they really do this? Michael gave Gavin a glance, looking for any signs of hesitation. Not sensing any, he nodded, clapped the man on the shoulder, and stepped inside.

…

   “So here’s what I’m thinking- superheroes! Or supervillains. Really, I kind of don’t care either way,” Jeremy laughed “But I’d like us to work together, you know?”

   The three of them were walking through the city, the sun beginning to set. There was nothing more comforting, Jack decided, than the subtle glow of the neon signs in storefront windows. She gave Geoff a nudge and an inquisitive look.

   “I’m already a getaway driver for hire. I could just do that, but for our own crew. It wouldn’t be much of a change for me.” She said, adjusting her Hawaiian shirt. “Up to you, boss.”

   Geoff gave her a look as they passed by the store Michael and Gavin had bought their masks at. “If we were supervillains- no way you or this city would let me be a hero, but if, if we were supervillains… would we need supervillain names? And costumes?” he paused, backpedaling to examine the shop they just passed.

   “I think I’d just wear this,” said jack, gesturing to her Hawaiian shirt and white shorts, “it’s kinda what I’m known for.”

   “I’d wear… bright orange shirt, purple suit, cowboy hat, and a mask.” Jeremy laughed, “Rimmy Tim looks.”

   “I’d wear a tux. A tux and a mask.” Geoff decided, browsing the masks for sale. Jeremy poked his head in as well, followed by Jack.

   Jack picked out a gold-rimmed [masquerade mask](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1wx1eJpXXXXcCXVXXq6xXFXXXQ/White-Flower-Pattern-Venetian-Masquerade-Ball-Masks-Flower-Princess-Masked-Fancy-Dress-Halloween-Party-Costume-Lace.jpg_640x640.jpg) with a fabric flower on it, while Geoff chose a [simple white mask](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1.8lmKFXXXXcyXXXXq6xXFXXX5/new-hot-blank-plain-jabbawockeez-mask-men-White-Face-Hiphop-Mysterious-Cosplay-dance-Movie-Prop-Reproductions.jpg) and drew a moustache on it with sharpie and Jeremy found a purple and orange [carnival mask](https://us.123rf.com/450wm/byzonda/byzonda1409/byzonda140900011/31297904-vector-carnival-masquerade-party-mask-isolated.jpg?ver=6) he liked.

   After paying, the three of them made their way back out and went back to wandering the shop district.

   “So, this is gonna be a thing, then?” Jeremy asked, slipping his mask into his pocket, “We’re gonna be a supervillain gang?”

   “That’s what it looks like.” Jack nodded

   “Alright. Oh, mind if we stop at Gamestop? I wanted to check if they had the new pokemon game earlier today, and we’re pretty close by right now.” Jeremy asked, hands in his pockets. Geoff nodded, still examining his own mask.

   Jack nodded as well, and Jeremy smiled. “Cool cool.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ryan meanwhile: https://mad-rabbit.com/a-man-band-with-a-cow-skull-on-his-head/


	6. Gamestop Shuffle

   The duo strode into the GameStop, masks on and ready to go. Their eyes settled on the cashier, a man who didn’t appear to be much older than them, with glasses and dark hair. He looked nervous, but not completely terrified. That was fair, Michael decided. He hadn’t even seen what they could do.

   “Welcome to GameStop, lemme guess, games.” The man said, voice monotone and tired. “If you’re robbers, please leave, I’m just an underpaid Puerto Rican.” He cast his eyes back down to his hot pink DS, tapping away. He didn’t seem worried at all.

    Gavin walked up to the counter, leaning down to look the man in the eyes. He clicked the crystals on his fingers against the countertop and grinned behind his mask.

   “Give us everything in the register.” Click click click. The man didn’t look up from his game, just silently opened the register. Gavin’s smile widened, until he saw the man held a fist full of quarters. He quietly placed them on the counter, picked one up, pressed it between his finger and the counter, and _flicked_ it.

   It flew out, smacking firmly against Gavin’s mask before ricocheting against the wall, hitting another wall, and hitting Michael’s forehead through his mask with a resounding ‘clack’. The man behind the counter was smiling, still looking down at his game, another quarter at the ready.

   Gavin’s mouth was hanging open behind his mask, reeling from what had just happened. The man behind the counter furrowed his eyebrows, glaring at his game and tapping furiously before looking back up at the duo. “Do you two still need something? Or can I get back to my game?” he asked, scratching his nose with the hand holding a new quarter.

   Gavin growled, stepping back but flexing his fingers. As he did so, more crystal forced its way through the skin of his fingertips. “C’mon luv, just give us the cash!” he cracked his neck as he made the order, and the man behind the counter rolled his eyes.

   “God, at least buy me dinner first. Taco bell works fine, I’m broke as shit.” He grumbled, flicking this quarter at the ceiling. It bounced into the floor, then came up to hit Gavin in the crotch. Gavin squawked, stepping back again in confusion and fear.

   This time Michael stepped up, eyes angry behind his bear mask. This time, before the man got a chance to throw a quarter, Michael yelled out “Stop fucking throwing change at me, asshole!”

   Immediately, a burst of flame spewed from his mouth, making the man behind the counter jump down from his seat and back up quickly. His eyes were wide behind his glasses as he surveyed the smoking desk.

   Michael slammed his hand on the desk, speaking at a normal volume. “We told  you, all the money in the register.” As he spoke, smoke poured from his lips and disappeared into the air.

   “Oh, sick vape t-tricks,” the man stammered, adjusting his glasses. Reaching out, he grabbed a GameStop bag and began stuffing money from the register into it. As he did so, he spoke up.

   “So, you guys are like me, right? You have, uh, dope-ass superpowers, right?” he asked, filling the bag with cash. That made Gavin pipe up.

   “You have a power?” He asked, walking forward and drumming his crystallized fingers against the desk again.

   “You didn’t think my nailing you with those quarters was just like, random, did you?” the man asked, incredulous.

   Gavin squawked again, flattening his hand on the desk. “So what, you ’ave like, superhuman aim?”

   “It’s more like really good luck honestly? I just have superhuman good luck.” He laughed, handing them the bag. “It sounds fuckin laaame when I put it like that.”

   Gavin narrowed his eyes, then decided “You’re not lying.”

   “Of course I’m not lying, asshole, jesus christ.”

   “Well, if you have superpowers, why are you working at GameStop?”

   “Oh, it’s ‘Question Ray’s Life Decisions’ hour already? Awesome.”

   “I’m just saying! You could be a supervillain, like us! Hell, you could be a supervillain _with_ us!” Gavin laughed, grabbing a bill out of the bag. Snatching a pen from the desk, he jotted down his number and handed it to Ray.

   Ray took the bill, read it and pocketed it, giving the duo an odd look. “You’re the… worst supervillains I’ve ever met.” He said, furrowing his eyebrows. “I’ll remember you.”

   Michael laughed, a candle’s worth of flame licking his upper lip as he did. Grabbing Gavin by the shoulders, bag of cash in hand, they started to walk towards the door-

   A door that was being pushed open by a man in a suit with a handlebar moustache, closely followed by a woman in a Hawaiian shirt and a man in a cowboy hat.

   “Hey welcome to GameStop where life is a fucking nightmare.” Ray sighed, sitting back down at his spot behind the desk and pulling out his DS again. The desk was still smoking.

   “Did we, uh, walk into something?” Jeremy asked, putting his hands up but making no move to exit the store. Ray rolled his eyes.

   Jack and Geoff immediately drew their guns and pointed it at Gavin and Michael, depending on who was closest.

   Gavin panicked and threw up his hands, exposing the large crystals on his fingertips. “Hey hey, hey, we can all calm down here!”

   “Can you shits fuck off?” Michael snarled, smoke escaping his nose and lips. Jack’s eyes widened as she saw this, and she lowered her gun a fraction, looking to Geoff to see if he’d seen it too.

   Geoff’s eyes were actually focused on the crystals Gavin had grown from his fingertips and the way they captured the fluorescent light.

   Before he could say anything to Jack or Jeremy about it, Michael decided to act- yelling loudly, “I said Fuck Off!” and sending a peacock’s tail of flame towards the three with Ray safely looking on.

   Jack and Geoff ducked down, while Jeremy backed up out the door. Stepping forward, Geoff straightened up and grabbed Michael by the shoulders.

   “Kid! We’re like you!” he said sharply, looking into Michael's eyes.

   Michael stepped back, shrugging Geoff’s hands off of him. “Fuck off!” he snarled, taking a step back, “you aren’t a part of this.” He met Geoff’s eyes, his own seeming to glow from within as smoke poured from his lips.

   Gavin stepped forward, pushing the overly agitated Michael back as Geoff opened his mouth to speak again. Flexing his fingers, he took a swipe at Geoff with his crystal claws-

   Only to find the blow blocked as Geoff summoned the ash from a water bottle to form around his arm again, creating claws of his own and forcing both Gavin and Michael to pause.

   “You… you actually aren’t fucking with us, are you?” Michael murmured, stepping forward to look at Geoff’s arm.

   It was Jack who replied, caution in her tone. “we should get out of here. What about the cashier?”

   “I vote we uhh, let him live his fuckin life…” said Ray.

   Michael nodded, then mumbled out “He’s like us… I think? Ray, can you delete the security cam footage?”

   Ray mock-saluted.

   Jeremy, who had been watching from halfway out the door, piped up. “want to uh, go to my apartment? We can talk there, like, actually talk.”

   Gavin narrowed his eyes, but looked to Michael, who nodded. Jeremy gestured for them to follow and started walking.


	7. Hard recruitment

   They arrived back at Jeremy's apartment sooner than Michael or Gavin expected, and the duo was quickly ushered inside by the other three. It was not the biggest apartment, but it had a comforting, open air to it. Michael and Gavin were sat down on the couch, while the other three took chairs, Jeremy's and Geoff’s chairs backwards.

   “So, you kids were robbing a GameStop, huh?” Geoff started, before Michael interrupted.

   “This’d better not be some talk on morals you old fuck-“

   “Morals? Oh God no. We're here to recruit you.” Laughed Jack, running her fingers through her hair.

   “Recruit us?” Gavin repeated, confusion clear in his voice. “For what?”

   “Well, you two are obviously a team, and your powers? Scary shit.” Jeremy laughed.

   Geoff gave Michael a once over. “Your power and mine would obviously work well together. You bring the fire, I’m what comes after.” He smirked, scratching at his beard.

   Jack spoke up next. “Fool’s gold, right? I'd love to watch your power work sometime. Can you crystalize things? People? “ She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter right now. What matters is, I’m guessing your first time using your power was to heal yourself. Mine was too. I know how scary that can be.”

   Michael glared at her. How dare she? But looking at Gavin… his eyes were wide and curious. Here he’d just found someone like him, Michael couldn’t take that away from him. Michael with his messy, evil power. Michael who couldn’t raise his voice without setting things on fire.

   “He said you can use skin, right? How does that work?” Gavin asked, tilting his head. His entire focus was on Jack, and Geoff couldn’t be happier.

   Jack held up her hands, pressing a finger into her right palm. As quickly as before, the skin moved fluidly to pool around her fingertip, wrapping around it like string. Gavin lurched, gagging. Michael smacked him on the back and laughed.

   “It just- It just came up!” Gavin stammered, trying not to heave as Michael took him by the shoulders and held him still. “Did you see that Mic- Dynamite, it just came up on her finger!”

   Michael sighed as Gavin continued his shocked yammering, while Jack was almost blushing from all the attention. “Dynamite, I to film our powers sometime. All of ours. I’ve filmed mine before in slow-mo, but I bet yours would look top!”

   “All of ours?” Geoff picked up, “does that mean you’re considering our offer?” He said it uncaringly, but he really did care quite a lot. Like Jack, he too had picked up on the duo’s age, and didn’t want them out on their own.

   Michael grumbled “Don’t get your hopes up.” Gavin gave him a confused look. Speaking to Geoff, Jack and Jeremy, Michael said quietly “Give us a minute outside, okay?” and took Gavin by the arm, standing and leading the lad outside.

   “What’s up boi?” Gavin asked once they were out of earshot, pushing up his mask. “I like ‘em. Jack especially.”

   Michael made an a “woo” noise. “Got a crush, gavvy wavvy?” He pinched Gavin’s cheek. He stopped quickly when a crystal slid out from the area he was pinching. “Oooh, he’s blushing!”

   Gavin slapped away his hand, then tried to slap his face but missed. “Shut up Michael! It’s not like that, I just like her power!”

   “yeah, she controls skin, right?  Maybe she can grow your teeny weenie”

   “Mi-chael!”

   “Either way, we have to see what they want us to do first. If it matches with what we want, we're good. If they want to do anything outside of that we're gone.”

   Gavin nodded, slipping his mask back on before leading Michael back inside. As they sat down, Michael spoke.

   “So, if we joined you, what would you make us do?”

   “Ideally we're gonna be a team, so we wouldn't make each other do anything. We'd work together.” Jack replied, straightening her shirt.

   “Alright peace and love™, a real answer please.”

   Geoff sighed, then replied. “Fine. We're gonna be a gang of supervillains. Ideally we'll be robbing bigger shit than GameStops, but that’s a fine place to start I fucking guess.”

   “Thanks, you know? We do our fucking best.” Said Michael, still wearing the bear mask.

   “God, can you take off the fucking bear mask? It’s so hard to take you seriously as a supervillain with that on.” Geoff looked like he wanted to cry.

   Michael made no move to remove the fucking bear mask. “You know, at this point it's not even to protect my identity, I want to fucking upset you, moustache.”

   “My name's Geoff Ramsey! I'm fucking bartender! I just want to rob banks with you people! Please, just take off your fucking bear mask!” Geoff pleaded, but the bear mask didn’t answer.

   Gavin was having a silent laughing fit until he hit his knee on the corner of the table in front of him and squawked like a bird, making Jack and Jeremy lose it.

   “Fine! Fine. We’re in.” Michael said after a few minutes, pulling the mask away from his face (and letting Geoff finally breathe). “My name’s Michael Jones. This fucker-“ he reached over and pulled Gavin’s mask off, making him squawk, “- is Gavin Free. Please to meet you and join your gang.”

   “Achievement unlocked- join gang” Gavin murmured.

   “This whole thing is just gonna be us hunting for achievements. Achievement unlocked- steal a helicopter. Achievement unlocked- rob a bank.” Jeremy joked.

   Geoff chimed in, “We could call ourselves the achievement hunter crew!” he laughed. “Or the fake achievement hunter crew because all the achievements are fake.”

   “What about the fake AH crew. Shorter.” Jeremy suggested

   “Fake AH for life!” hollered Gavin, fist-bumping Michael who said the same thing but much quieter.

   Jeremy crossed his arms in front of his chest, leaning back in his chair and giving Jack a look. “So, what now? We gonna rob somethin’? Do some crimes?” he laughed.

   Jack snickered, rolling her eyes. “We all got costumes? Got masks?” Geoff pulled his mask out while Geoff and Jeremy did the same, showing them to Michael and Gavin. Michael laughed at Geoff’s mask, a candle’s worth of flame bursting from his nostrils and making Gavin squeak.

   “But you all need villain names! Supervillain names!” Gavin whined, leaning against Michael’s shoulder.

   “Dibs on Kingpin.” Ramsey said quickly, throwing his hands up. Jack elbowed him.

   “Kingpin? You’re ridiculous. I’m gonna go with… Pilot.” She said it smoothly, pleased with her choice.

   Jeremy laughed. “Gotta go with Rimmy Tim, in the end.” He strapped on his mask, grinning.

   Geoff elbowed him, “More like Little J,” and Jeremy gave a loud, dramatic cry of mock pain.

   “Geoffrey! What did I ever do to you?” Jeremy whined.


	8. Sniper souffle

   The van was ready to peel out as they parked outside the jewelry store, masks on. Geoff, Jeremy and Michael stepped out, Michael’s expression tired behind his mask but a grin making its way onto his face nonetheless.

   Jack stayed in the driver’s seat, Gavin riding shotgun. He wished he could take part in the robbery, but he was needed out here.

   Geoff led the way inside, flanked by Jeremy and with Michael bringing up the rear. Their masks were on, Michael’s little bear mask still covering most of his face.

  When they went through the door, guns raised, the woman behind the counter immediately hit an alarm button under her desk and set off a siren placed in the ceiling.

   “Give us the cash!” Jeremy yelled, throwing the bag onto the counter. The woman hesitated until Geoff raised his gun and shot at the ceiling, drywall spraying down on them

   Michael _yelled,_ for once in his life letting loose as a rush of flame blew out from his masked face. The woman behind the counter screamed as the flame came out four or five feet towards her, at the same time blowing back to ignite Michael’s shoulders. He yelped, sending another lick of flame as he patted his shoulders and extinguished the bits of flame.

   Geoff closed his eyes, the bottle of ash in his pocket starting to vibrate. Slowly, then faster, all the ash and embers from inside made their way up and out, flowing through the air like water and pressing against his extended arm, forming those long claws and the spike on his elbow.

   After admiring his work for a moment, he stepped towards the display case full of jewelry and brought his elbow down on it hard, shattering the glass. Then, with his unclawed hand, he began scooping the jewelry into the bag he had strapped over his shoulder.

   “Go go go!” Jeremy yelled to the woman behind the counter, Geoff standing up next to him with his bag filled. Reaching his arm out towards the woman’s face, the embers on Geoff’s arm flared to life, forming elaborate shapes as he pointed at her. “Give us the fucking money!”

   She quickly gave them the bag of cash after that, and the three of them ran out as quickly as they could, hopping into the back of the van and signaling to Jack that it’s time to go. She floors it, the van’s tires squealing as they peel out of the alleyway, already hearing the sirens in the distance growing closer.

…

   Geoff pointed to the newspaper, the headline reading “Gem Store Robbed of Jewelry and Cash in Los Santos- Third Jewelry Store Robbery This Month”.

   The five were at Jeremy’s apartment, Michael and Gavin in a pile on the couch while Jack, Geoff and Jeremy sat at the table. Jeremy was eating pancakes, listening to the other two talk.

   “So we’ve robbed three stores in this last month, right? That’s not bad.” Geoff said, scratching at his stubble. “Made some good money.” He yawned, reaching for one of Jeremy’s pancakes, which Jeremy quickly snatched away.

   “We need a plan, though.” Jack looked thoughtful, but smiled at Jeremy’s defense of his pancakes. “If we’re gonna be a gang of supervillains, we need…” she sighed, rubbing her forehead. “We cant just be robbing for fun. We need to get safehouses, and set up alliances with other gangs, and pay off police! And we need more people, for sure.”

   “Five isn’t enough? I thought with our powers…” Jeremy looked confused.

   “There’s that guy at gamestop, he’s got powers.” Michael called from the couch, with Gavin giving a thumbs up.

   “We aren’t recruiting from fucking gamestop!” Geoff yelled back, Michael flipping him off.

   “He has good powers!”

   “He works at fucking gamestop, how good can his powers be?”

…

   The sun was honestly too bright today, thought Ray. Or maybe he’d just spent too long indoors on his 3ds. Either way, the sun glaring off his rifle was nearly blinding.

   He settled into a semi-comfortable crouch on the rooftop, pulled his purple hoodie up over his head, and peered down the scope.

   He saw two men in suits, walking on either side of a man in plain clothes. Taking careful aim, he gazed down the scope and got ready to shoot. He took in a deep breath, exhaling slowly.

   Silently, he mouthed a single word.

  “Bang.”

…

    “Did you hear? A sniper took out a member of the Cockbites last night. The press isn’t saying who, just that they were a member.” Jeremy held his phone up, the news site displayed on the screen.

   “Huh.” Geoff nodded, reaching for the phone. “They’re one of the big gangs too. Rare that something like this would happen.”

   “Good for us, though.” Jeremy suggested, giving Geoff the phone to read the story.

   “An unstable playing field might be good for us, yeah.” Jack said, reading the paper. “Might be bad, though. Never know.”

   “It might be just what we need to establish ourselves.” Geoff spoke as he read.

   “That’s true, but they’re gonna be extra on their guard now. Might attack us if we make ourselves known.” Jack looked up from her paper to give Geoff a focused look. She seemed worried.

   Geoff offered her a smile. “Don’t worry, we aren’t making any big plays yet.”

…

   “So, where’s my money?” Ray tapped his foot impatiently. The park the two had decided to meet in was full of children and happy families, all potential witnesses if either tried to pull something. “Unless you aren’t satisfied with my work…”

   “Your work was fine. Clean and lethal, just like we’d requested. But regretfully, we won’t be paying you.”

   “Typical, unpaid Puerto Rican labor. Why not?”

   “We just think it'd be more fun to let the Cockbites know-“

   Ray jumped up. “No, no, you are Not doing this to me. March your ass back under the rock you came out from and fuck off.” He stormed off.

   While he walked, he silently fumed. What an asshole, not even paying him. I mean yeah, it wasn’t hard work, being a sniper with his power, but he still deserved some payment- and GameStop didn’t pay well. And the idea that the Cockbites might be after him- he didn’t want to think about that. That was bad. Even though it hadn't been his idea! Ugh.

   Arriving back at his apartment, he went to grab the door when- wait. The door was unlocked and hanging slightly open, an invitation and a warning. Pushing it open all the way, he saw… fuck.

   The apartment was trashed, his belongings thrown all around and against the walls. Up across his wall the Cockbites logo was spraypainted, a large rooster and a cartoon set of teeth in a circle. Ray looked to his television and Xbox, finding them both missing. Bastards.

   Snatching his phone from his pocket, Ray dialed a number he’d gotten weeks ago.

…

   Michael's phone started ringing, vibrating on the counter.

   “Michael, boi! Your phone's ringing!” Gavin called to Michael, who was watching the news. They were still covering the robbery they’d done a few days back.

   “Toss it boi!” Michael yelled, holding his hands up. Gavin grabbed the phone off the counter near him and threw it to Michael, who snatched it out of the air where he was standing a few feet away.

   “Hello? Michael here.”

   The voice on the other end sounded strained and nervous. “Hello? H-hey, uh, you robbed a Gamestop a few weeks back, right?”

   Michael’s eyebrows raised as he replied. “Holy shit, you’re the- the quarter guy, right?”

   “Right, uh, so I uh… I need protection. You two have powers, you’re like me, you can- you can protect me. Sorry for being such a little bitch about this.”

   “Slow down man.” Michael spoke slowly, calmly into his phone. “We’ll come get you, okay? You’re fine.”

   “We’re gonna get who?” Gavin called over to Michael, only to be waved off. “Where are you at right now?”

   “The- the park. Central park. Under the big willow tree.”

   “We’ll be there soon, okay? Hold your fucking horses.”

…

   Jack delivered the two to the park safely, parking in the parking lot and getting out with the two to look for the mystery caller. Heading towards the willow tree, the three walked quickly.

   As they got closer, a man stepped out from under the tree. He carried a duffle bag over his shoulder and wore a purple hoodie, and he gave them both a nervous look of gratitude.

   “You actually came, thank god.” Ray spoke softly, breathing out a sigh.

   “What happened? You sounded terrified on the phone.” Michael asked hesitantly, guiding the man back to the van with Gavin watching curiously.

   “Cockbites happened. Trashed my apartment. Can’t go back there.” Ray’s gaze was firmly on the ground, but Michael’s was cast at Ray and full of confusion.

   “Why would the Cockbites be after you? You work at fucking Gamestop!” a single breath of smoke brushed past Michael’s lips.

   “Probably because I sniped one of them. You know, typical highschool drama”


	9. Chapter 9

   “Hey, you did fucking _what_?” Michael hissed, eyes wide. Ray laughed, smacking him on the back in a friendly manner.

   “Yeah, ha ha, funny joke right?” Ray spoke in a monotone voice, his eyes on the ground. “I’m not saying more until I know I have your protection.”

  “You can’t just drop something like that and refuse to explain!” Gavin whined, throwing his hands up. “We need some context!”

   “No, no way. Not until I know I’m safe.” Ray deadpanned as they approached the van.

   “Fine, get in the fucking van. We’ll talk when we get everyone together.” Michael grumbled, running a hand through his hair.

   “Everyone?” Ray was confused. “Oh, did you actually group up with those dudes who interrupted the robbery?”

   “Yeah, we’re one big happy family.” Michael snarked. Jack gave him a look from the driver’s seat, and Michael nodded. Jack started driving.

   Ray pulled out his 3ds and started playing a game that Michael quickly recognized as pokemon, and after about five minutes of trying to ignore it, he finally asked “Hey gamestop, what’s your favorite pokemon?”

   “Snorlax. He’s thick as fuck.”

   “Fair. Mine’s charmander.”

   “Best starter tbh”

   “Right? Fuck you bulbasaur.”

   “Squirtle? More like… shitty pokemon. Gottum.”

   “What about you, Gav? You play pokemon?”

   Gavin shook his head silently.

   Michael scoffed. “Lame.”

…

   The four arrived back at the apartment safely after about a ten-minute drive, Michael leading Ray inside with Ray’s eyes still glued to his 3ds. Gavin followed Jack, wary of this new person.

   “Geoff! Jeremy! We’re back and we have the little minge from gamestop!” Gavin hollered, causing Jeremy and Geoff to peek around the corner into the room.

   “Who? And why?” Geoff asked, incredulous. Jeremy was more social, however, and walked over to greet Ray.

   “Hey, I’m Jeremy, uh… can I ask why you’re here?”

   “I want to join. I need the protection offered by a crew of people with powers.”

   Geoff stepped in, a suspicious look on his face. “You need protection from _what_ , exactly?”

   “I’m on bad terms with the Cockbites. That’s all I’m willing to say until I know I have protection.”

   Michael spoke up. “He said he sniped one of them. I’m taking that to mean he was responsible for the one who died recently.”

   Geoff nodded. “I don’t want to take in someone if it means we’ll become a target of the Cockbites.” He murmured, scratching at his stubble. “But if he has powers…”

   “I do.” Ray said quietly.

   “And we do need more people…” Jack spoke up from the back of the room.

   Michael gave Ray a once-over, thinking, then spoke. “I say we go for it. We could use a sniper, right? Especially one with powers.”

   Geoff gave Ray a scrutinizing look, but nodded after a few seconds. “Let’s do it.”

   Gavin, who had stayed mostly silent throughout the whole thing, nodded when Geoff gave his approval.

   Jack nodded as well, a thoughtful look on her face.

   Jeremy offered Ray his hand to shake, smiling slightly. “Welcome to the Fake AH Crew! I’m Jeremy, over there is Geoff, that’s Jack, and you’ve already met Gavin and Michael!”

   Ray nodded, then let out a big sigh of relief. “Alright, I can tell you about what happened now.”

   “I’m a sniper for hire. You’ve probably heard of me-  I go by the name Brownman.” Geoff’s eyebrows raised at this 

“I was hired to do a hit on a member of the Cockbites, but they never paid me for my work, they just told the Cockbites where I lived. I came home to a trashed apartment. Now I need a crew, for protection. I’m fully willing to help on heists, I just…” he sighed. “God man I really miss my Xbox so if you have one please let me use it.” He said with a straight face.

   Jeremy laughed. “Hey, yeah I have one in the apartment, but we’re gonna be working on safehouses and we’ll make sure each one of them has one too. Just for you.”

   Ray mock moaned a ‘thank you’ to Jeremy and collapsed into a chair.

   Geoff turned to him. “So you’re really Brownman? That’s a twist.”

   “Yeah, the one and only.”

   “I was thinking of trying to recruit you- good thing you came to us first.”

   “Yeah after our fateful gamestop encounter.”

   Gavin piped up, “Why do you work at a gamestop if you’re an assassin? Do you really need the money?”

   Ray yawned. “It helps me seem normal. Nobody suspects a gamestop clerk to be a fucking killer for hire.”

   Michael laughed at that.

…

   Ryan was up late. He knew he shouldn’t do this to himself, he _knew_ he needed the sleep, yet it evaded him in the end. How tiresome. His flat was dark, and looking around in the darkened room the shapes of the skulls he collected bulged out from their stands in grotesque caricatures of how they’d look in the light. Those by the window that he’d made into flowerpots watched him with hollow eye sockets, teeth bared in smiles too large to be genuine.

   God, he hated nights like these.

   Sitting on the side of his bed with his laptop on, he browsed news websites at 3 in the morning. Another jewelry heist. A sniper took out a member of the Cockbites. Click, click.

   With a ding, a message arrived in his email. Clicking it to open it, he read.

_To:[130981231082712@cryptmail.com](mailto:130981231082712@cryptmail.com)  
From: [business@cockbites.com](mailto:business@cockbites.com)_

_Mad Mercenary (or vagabond, whichever you prefer to be called), we of the Cockbites crew have a request for you. Of course, 50k awaits you if you accept. The sniper Brownman has assassinated one of our own, and we would like to see him meet the same end. Make it painful, and send pics as proof of completion._

_Find him, torture him, kill him. That will be all._

_Sincerely, the Cockbites._

Ryan smiled. Sleep might evade him, but no human could for long. Opening a new tab, he started digging for information on this “Brownman”.

…

   “The grand heist!” Geoff yelled, pointing at the whiteboard he had purchased for explicitly this purpose. “We rob a bank, make a fucking TON of money, and then meet back up at the safehouse.”

   “We have a safehouse?” Gavin asked.

   “It’s new. Up near Mt. Chiliad.” Geoff confirmed, looking pleased. He looked to Ray. “And yes, there is an Xbox.” Ray pumped his fist in the air.

   “So what, we just walk in and rob the bank?” Michael asked, narrowing his eyes.

   “No, let me fucking explain myself, god damn.”

   Michael laughed, then nodded. “Go ahead.”

   Geoff straightened up and pointed a finger at the board again. “So! Here’s the plan. We all have masks, right?”

   “Ray doesn’t.” Gavin spoke up, but Ray gave him a sheepish look.

   “Actually, I uh…” he pulled a small white tuxedo mask out of his pocket. “Yeah…”

   “Alright then!” Geoff called out. “We all have our masks. Michael, you and me, we walk into the bank, we get the money. Gavin? I need you and Jeremy to get a firetruck.”

   “Wot?” Gavin yelped in surprise.

   “You heard me! You call the fire department, you tell them there’s a big fire, they send a firetruck? Jeremy rushes in and gets the driver out, you two are in the firetruck. You use the hose to blast everyone who tries to interfere.”

   Jeremy nodded, an intense look on his face.

   “Ray, you’re sniping. Eventually the two in the firetruck are gonna drive by the roof youre on, you’re gonna jump down onto the firetruck. Hold onto the ladder, or get inside, up to you really.”

    Ray looked shaken, but nodded.

   Geoff continued. “ _Then_. Jack. You’ve at this point stolen a cargobob from… somewhere, it’s really up to you. I have no idea where you get half the shit you drive.”

   Jack laughed, nodding.

   Geoff took this as an okay to carry on. “You’re gonna follow the firetruck’s progress, and eventually they’re gonna get into a regular car. You guys in the firetruck? When you ditch the firetruck, you’re gonna _cover_ it in sticky bombs. Just really fuck it up. Then, the cops catch up, think youre still in there, approach, then BOOM. Dead cops. Meanwhile, Jack’s picked up the car you’re all in, and is flying away. We have the money, we have each other, we’re golden.”

   “Golden.” Gavin repeated.

…

   “Gavin, Jeremy, you two are gonna get the firetruck. Jack, youre getting the cargobob, Michael, youre with me, we’re gonna rob this place. We ready? Everyone in position?”

   “Got my eyes on a cargobob right now, shouldn’t be too hard to steal.” Jack’s voice came in clear over the intercoms, through the earbuds in everyone’s ears.

   “Ready to call the fire police!” Gavin chirped, phone out in front of himself.

   “Then, lets-“ Geoff was cut off.

   “Llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllets heist!”

   Gavin immediately dialed the fire department. Speaking in a high pitched, overly feminine voice, he managed to choke out “Hello there! There’s a big fire near the gun store! Please come quick!” and hung up.

   He gave Jeremy two big thumbs up. Jeremy laughed and returned the gesture, before moving to hide in an alleyway.

   Geoff and Michael made their way into the bank, masks on and guns out. Michael shot up into the air, and immediately the people inside the bank knew what was happening. Geoff pointed his gun at the teller behind the counter. “Fucking move!” he yelled, while Michael kept watch over the hostages.

   “Go go fucking go!” Geoff hissed as the teller unlocked the vault. She finally managed, revealing the money stacked inside. Geoff tossed her a duffle bag. “Now put the money in the bag and you’ll be free to go.” She started grabbing the bills and stuffing them in the bag, sniffling.

   Michael had collected the phones from the hostages, and was now pacing back and forth in his bear mask, glaring at anyone who looked like they’d try to be a hero. One man tried to stand up and got the butt of Michael’s rifle to the bridge of his nose.

   Ray, from his vantage point on the roof across from the bank, saw the firetruck containing Gavin and Jeremy first. They were being followed by police, but both were laughing inside the vehicle. Lifting the speaker to his mouth, he spoke into the intercom. “You guys need to move. Firetruck’s here.”

   The teller handed Geoff the bag of cash once it was about as full as it could get, and the two made their way out to the main lobby of the bank where Michael was waiting. With a nod, the two walked out.

   The firetruck pulled up in front of the bank, police in hot pursuit. As two people tried to enter the bank, the firetruck’s hose was turned onto them and they were knocked prone. Within five minutes, Geoff and Michael stepped out confidently, and as the firetruck slowed to a stop, the two opened and walked into the back section. Ray also jumped from the roof of the building, landing nicely on the top.

   “Go go go!” Geoff yelled to Gavin, who was driving. In exchange, gavin turned on the sirens and floored it.

   After they had driven in the firetruck for about 10 minutes, the crew spotted a van they liked. Everyone got out, and in the few seconds they had before the police caught up, they got into the van. Jack, flying the cargobob, swept down low and hooked it.

   “So long, fuckers!” Michael yelled, firing his gun at the police that were approaching as Jack lifted them into the air.

   The cargobob carried them easily, and the van swayed lazily as they quickly escaped the police cars and the one chopper that had been called to follow them. There was an explosion down below, someone must have triggered the sticky bombs. What a life.

…

   Gavin flopped onto one of the couches in the safehouse, immediately exhausted. Michael laughed and sat down next to him. Jack smiled at the sight.

   “So, first heist is a pretty resounding success, I’d say.” Geoff gave jack a grin as he walked into the safehouse.

   Jeremy was next to enter, quickly snatching a recliner for himself. He nodded at Geoff before closing his eyes and immediately falling asleep.

   Ray was the last to enter, walking past all of them to enter a room with a bed. He was exhausted, and wasn’t afraid of showing it. As happy as he was about the heist, he still needed rest.

…

   Ray woke up with a start. Looking around, he saw nothing out of place in his dark room. He assumed it must just be left over adrenaline from the heist.

   Only one thing actually bothered him. His room was cold, even with the blankets he was curled up under. Was there a draft? Looking up, he saw the window was open. Had it been like that before?

   A floorboard creaked to the side of his bed and he instantly was on high alert. He quickly sat up in his bed, looking around frantically in the dark when-

   There was a hand around his throat. He tried immediately to pry it off, to do something, he-

   -he still had his intercom earbud in. maybe someone else did. There was a chance, if his power really was superhuman good luck, then maybe his luck would come through in this.

   Quickly, he reached up and pressed the speaker button. He could barely speak while being choked, but he had to at least try.

   “HHhhhehhlp- hhhlp mmheee, shhhhsssomeone” he choked out, still wrestling with his attacker. He felt his thoughts get less and less coherent.

   Footsteps, then, a door creaking open. The light flipped on, and there in the doorway stood Jack.


	10. If You Flip Three Coins

   Really, it wasn’t hard for Ryan to find Ray. He had always been good at finding his targets, and this one left a pretty clear trail to follow. He had watched the crew enter the bank, seen Ray work as the sniper, and followed them from there back to the safehouse. After they had settled in, he hopped through Ray’s window.

   The man standing above Ray was wearing a cow skull like a mask, but through the eyeholes Ray could see cold blue eyes peering down at him before the attacker’ head whipped around to face Jack. She was glaring, reaching out towards him- empty handed? He was almost willing to laugh. With his powers, he was fairly confident nobody would take him down without a good weapon.

   He was cocky. He didn’t pull back when she stepped forward and grabbed his exposed arm.

   Instantly, there was an avalanche of pain as his very skin rippled back, peeling away from where she touched. He yelled out in pain and shock, watching his flesh separate, splitting cleanly and curling up around the edges in several places to reveal raw meat, not bleeding but fragilely held together by a thin membrane. His veins, clearly visible through the thin layer of skin left over, pulsed and twitched as he tried to pull away while being effectively skinned. Jack looked at him, meeting his eyes, and released him with a shove.

   “Tell us who sent you and I might fix you.” She tapped her foot. Ray watched, mouth agape, as Ryan clutched at his arm and panted, letting out small whines here and there.

   With a shuffle, Geoff rushed into the room after hearing the commotion, closely followed by Jeremy, Michael and Gavin.

   “What the fuck- Jack, who is this?” Geoff yell-whispered, pointing at Ryan.

   “The FUCK did you do to his ARM?” Michael questioned.

   “You, you’re…” Ryan looked at his arm again and nearly heaved. “You’re like me. You have, you can do things.”

   Jeremy gave the man in the cow skull mask an odd look. “Yeah? What can you do, buddy?” he condescended.

   Jack hadn't stopped glaring at the man. “Give us your info or I’ll do way worse.”

   “Cockbites,” Ryan choked out. “They hired me because I have a near perfect track record in assassinations for hire.”

   “Holy shit!” Geoff laughed, incredulous. “You’re the mad mercenary!”

   Ryan nodded, then turned to Jack and held out his arm. “Please?” he requested.

   Jack gave him a look. “Explain what you mean by ‘you’re like me‘ first.” She ordered.

   Ryan gave a desperate look. “I don’t want to show you with my arm like this, please.”

   Jack scowled, but reached out to hold his arm anyway. Dragging a finger down from his upper arm to his wrist, she pulled the skin back together like the patches of a quilt, watching them all stitch back into one piece. Ryan gave a sigh of relief, rubbing his arm gently.

   “You have… powers. You can do things.” He gestured. “Things people can’t do. I don’t know what your just did, I’m guessing some form of dermakinesis?”

   Jack crossed her arms, but nodded. “that matches the research I’ve done, yeah.”

   Ryan nodded, then continued. “I've got osteokinesis” he sighed, then took something out of his pocket. Jack was instantly on guard, but he gave her the ‘stand down’ gesture. In his hand he held a chunk of bone that he tossed to her. After briefly examining it, she tossed it back. Quickly, Ryan shaped it into a throwing knife and threw it by the blade, watching it spin twice before embedding itself in the wall.

   Geoff whistled, long and low, while Gavin squawked loudly and ran over to check the knife. Michael was unimpressed. Jack gave him a curious look.

   “So I'm guessing, since you have powers, you’re the protector of the group?” Ryan questioned, still wearing the mask. Jack wisely stayed silent, but Gavin piped up, “nah, we all have powers.”

   “Shut up idiot!” Michael smacked the back of his head with his hand, smoke drifting from his mouth, and Gavin squawked again.

   Ryan's eyebrows rose at this news, turning to face all of them. “is this true? You… you actually all have powers?”

   Geoff gave Gavin a scathing look. “Yeah. Yeah, we all have powers.”

   “I want uh. In. Into your gang. Your heists are usually robbing banks and stores and stuff like that, right? I’m… good for that. Good muscle. And I can take down rival gangs pretty wep- well”

   “did you just say wep”

   Ryan blushed under his skull mask. “no”

   “Do you still have orders to uhhhh fucking kill me” Ray asked from the bed, causing him to meet Ryan’s eyes again. Ryan shook his head quickly.

  “You have any idea how long I’ve been looking for people like me? No way I'd kill one once I'd finally found some.”

   Geoff stepped forward, and Ryan looked up from where he had been talking to Ray. “We don’t know anything about you. We don’t know your name, your face, not shit. How can we trust you? How do we know you aren’t working against us?”

   Ryan nodded, then reached up and slowly pulled off the cow skull he wore as a mask, placing it down on the table with a heavy thud. “My name is Ryan Haywood, and you’re the only people to have seen the mad mercenary’s face.”

…

   Ryan had decided to stay the night, considering it was about 2 in the morning when he met everyone. He even made breakfast, a mean crepe platter. However, even as he tried, nobody really talked to him. He first tried engaging Michael, curious about the man and wondering if he had really seen the bit of smoke come out of his mouth the night before. Michael just scoffed at him and ate his cooking, however, before leaving with the comment “Needed more strawberries.”

   After that failed exchange, Ryan tried to talk to Geoff. Geoff was perfectly willing to talk- with his mouth full of crepes and cream. Ryan didn’t get anything from that exchange either.

   Eventually, Gavin came out of his room to investigate the smell of food. Ryan sat down across from him, and before he even got the chance to ask, Gavin stuck out his hand for Ryan to shake over their breakfast. “I’m Gavin.”

   “Ryan, pleased to meet you.” Ryan replied, smiling softly. “Help yourself to some crepes.”

   “I think I will.” Gavin said, gathering some food onto his plate and sitting down. “So, what do you want to know?”

   “Ryan’s eyebrows went up. “You won’t get in trouble for talking to me?”

   Gavin laughed, cutting a strawberry neatly in half with his fork. “I don’t think you’re going to betray us. And if you did, I really doubt you’d be able to hide from us for that long.”

   Ryan nodded after a moment’s hesitation.

   “So, what do you want to know?” Gavin asked again, popping half of a strawberry into his mouth. Ryan thought for a moment, then spoke up.

   “First off, what’s your power?” He asked, and Gavin chewed slowly.

   After swallowing, Gavin spoke. “My blood crystalizes once it’s out of my body. If it gets into a living thing, they’ll crystalize from the inside out.”

   Ryan looked intrigued. “So your blood crystalizes, do you heal quickly that way?”

   “It more acts like a rapidly forming scab.”

   “Can I… I don’t want you to hurt yourself, but can I see?”

   “I have videos of it. I’ve recorded it in slow-mo, even.”

   “If I could see that, that’d be... Great”

   Gavin stood up and walked into the room he had slept in, then emerged with a laptop. Setting it down on the table in front of Ryan, he pulled up a chair to sit next to him.

   The video he pulled up was 13 seconds long in real time, but in slow-mo it was almost a minute of footage. Pressing play, he started the video.

   Ryan flinched as video-Gavin dragged a straight razor across his palm, watching blood start to well up in the crevasse created by the blade before-

   It started with one small, cube-shaped golden crystal. It formed where the razor was first pressed down, springing up like a tower over the horizon. It brought with it several smaller cubes, shining brightly under the fluorescent light, all pressing up against the torn edges of his skin. Smaller and smaller cubes formed, eventually filling the entirety of the cut. Gavin stopped the video.

   “So, how’s that?” he asked simply. Ryan gave him a look.

   “Fantastic.”

…

   The others were less inclined to let Gavin film them using their powers. Michael finally caved, being the first one to let him.

   “Fine, I’ll let you film it,” Michael huffed, standing outside of the safehouse at 9 pm., “But does _he_ have to watch? Creepy fuck.”

   Ryan was indeed watching, having brought out a stool to sit on and observe. Gavin sighed, “Just ignore him.” and got behind his camera.

   After a few seconds of fiddling with the settings, he gave a thumbs-up to Michael.

   Michael glared at Ryan, then looked straight into the camera and yelled “FUCK!”. Instantly, fire burst from his lips, rushing about four feet out from his face before dispersing into the air.

   Ryan looked amazed, but Gavin didn’t even seem phased, just adjusting something on his camera before nodding.

   The three headed back inside, Gavin setting up the camera and uploading the footage from it to the laptop. Pressing play, the three began to watch.

   Michael slowly opened his mouth, flaring his nostrils, then began to breathe out through his mouth. It was clear he was not yet yelling, and the slow-mo showed the fire gathering just inside his mouth before he yelled it out.

   The fire looked almost unreal in the darkness of the evening, as they watched it fan out and then disappear into the air.

…

   “You are not fucking filming me. No. No. Fuck you. No.” Geoff whined, all while willingly walking outside to be filmed. “I hate you. I hate this. Ryan, you’re out of the crew. Fuck you.”

   Ryan had actually fallen into a pretty comfortable routine with the crew, working well alongside them in a minor heist a week back. His infamy as the “Mad Mercenary” had worked to their advantage, as the shopkeeper was too intimidated by the bull-skull wearing man to call the police until after the crew had left.

   “Geoff, come on. We set up a campfire for you and everything.” Gavin mentioned the campfire, burning low, that Geoff arrived in front of.

   Geoff sighed. “So what, I just use my power? I just do that?”

   Gavin nodded behind the camera, and Ryan gave a thumbs up.

   Rolling his eyes like this was some massive inconvenience, Geoff reached his hand out over the fire. Instantly, the smoke snaked its way around him, obscuring his face. With a small rumbling sound, the ash and cinders from the fire rose up as well, coating his arm and forming long claws and a pointed elbow. Live embers formed mock-tattoos in the blackness of his new arm, dotting it like constellations.

   Ryan gave an approving whistle and Gavin nodded, looking up finally from the camera to give a happy nod.

…

   “You want to what?”

   Ryan looked nervous, glancing behind him to where gavin was getting the camera ready.

   “We want to… film? The skin manipulation that you do?” this was already a mistake, he thought.

   “Alright, if it’s fast.” She winked at Gavin, knowing full well that Ryan was still terrified of her and relishing in that fact.

   Placing her arm in front of the camera, she waited until Gavin nodded, then touched her index finger to the skin. Instantly, it rippled from the point of contact, then peeled back. She didn’t seem to be in any pain as her skin pulled back, and then sewed itself back together. She gave Ryan a smile, then walked away.

…

   Jeremy was happy to be filmed with the camera zoomed in on his arm, just running his fingers through the scales there, flipping them up and back down. It was a cool effect for the camera to capture, especially with how thy caught the sunlight.

   Ryan especially was fascinated by Jeremy’s scales, taking time just watching him play with them.

  “And the sunlight you absorb really gives you speed and strength?” he asked after filming was done.

   Jeremy nodded, beaming.

…

  “No no, I get it, my power isn’t cool enough to be filmed, I understand.” Ray said, throwing his hands up into the air. “I get it, you’ve asked literally everyone but me.”

   “Ray?”

   “What, Gavin.”

   “Your thing is enhanced luck, right?”

   “Yeah, you know that.”

   “So if you flip a coin three times, how likely is it you’d be able to call heads each time and be right?”

   “Uhhh, probably 100 percent.”

   “Ryan, how likely is it without his power that it’d be heads each time?

   “Uh. 50 percent.”

   “What are your odds though.”

   “50 percent”

   [“No its not!”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z4XxMVb1Zo)


End file.
